It Comes To This!

They have played three times this season and the Warriors won two. The first was in the early season tourny at the Aud. Local fans know that the Aud’s season premiere seldom reflects the hockey picture at the end of the season. A prime example is the fact that those teams met in the consolation game. They next met at the Arena and Clinton got two goals in the third to beat New Hartford 3-1. Then came the game that set the tone for Round 4!

Game three was rock ‘em, sock ‘em hockey and the surprise was that the Spartans were doing more than their share of the rock ‘em, sock ‘em! New Hartford is more of a free wheeling, hard skating club that will skate with you for four or five periods of hockey if they need to. But, they have woken a sleeping giant and filled them with a great resolve. I know that is more TORA, TORA, TORA than the MIRACLE ON ICE…but, you know what I’m going for. After the Spartans beat Clinton at the Rec. Center, one of the two coaches from that game told me that if these two met again…it would be war. He said it as an observation and not a vengeful promise. I think he’s right!

Clinton plays old school dump and chase, grind it out hockey and no body does it better. They have experience at key positions, especially Sean Wollridge, Derek Lacelle, Collin Gleason, Rick Beaton and Matt Flafley in goal. Chris Snyder, Jordan Hobaica and Chris Harjung are the important offensive force for Clinton.

The Spartans have been jelling as their young guns emerge. Those young guns include guys we’ve noted before…Zalewski, Silberlicht, Kelleher, Whittemore and others. But they’re still driven by their senior leaders...Bill Colp, Rich Steele, Dan Wentworth, Ryan Brady, Rob Luker, Chris Perra, Josh Noggle and netminder Wayne Rich. This game will be a great showdown in the nets.

Here we go -- I think the key will be…not the first goal but the second. If N.H. could go up 2-0 – the game changes and the Spartans could use their speed to hold that distance and win. For that to happen, they need to press, press, press. If Clinton goes up 2-0 at the Arena…the crowd takes over and all that’s left is the hand shake. If the game’s second goal ties it…advantage Clinton because of their experience at this level of post season play. And it’s their barn.

In the end, I say that Clinton wins it 4-2 with an empty net goal.

What do you say?

I'll be there Friday and will blog the game's story. If you can't do that, sign up for sports alerts on wktv.com and we'll text you after each score and period.